I lived in an over 100 year old house (which is pretty old for the midwest) for a few years. The heating was an old 8 foot by 8 foot by 8 foot cast iron steam boiler retrofitted with a natural gas feed and a pump for hot water instead. It used to be coal - the "storage" room next to it still had a coal chute built into the wall. The radiators were each cast iron behemoths that you could use as a window seat.

And *those* were a retrofit a few decades after the house was built, probably 1930's. Before that two large fireplaces heated it (and possibly 2 more that may have been removed, from a notch in the brickwork at the opposite end where a chimney might have been).

Usually in places like large manors these days, unless the owner is trying to live nostalgically, they usually install electric or propane baseboard heaters. Depending on the construction and latitude of the place, it can be either very effective or nearly useless.